Press Quotes

The powerful performance of Jurowski (….) in conjunction with the excellent playing of the Berlin radio orchestra delivers the best interpretation of this time, while the recording excels in sonority and transparency.

December 2015

BBC Music Magazine

The Third calls for a massive orchestra of 111 musicians, its huge surges of sound brilliantly handled by PENTATONE’s engineers….
…Vladimir Jurowski…delivers an absolutely stunning account that vividly captures the work’s drama and emotional intensity

(Erik Levi, May 2015)

International Record Review

The present release, with assured playing from the Berlin Radio Symphony Orchestra, wide-ranging sound and detailed booklet notes from Steffen Georgi, is certainly the preferred option at present: should Jurowski have in mind a Schnittke cycle from this source, one can only await future instalments with interest.

Schnittke's Third Symphony is one of the most exciting compositions he has written, and Berlin Radio Symphony Orchestra conducted by Vladimir Jurowski are brilliant messengers of this distinctive musical message, in a SACD with sound of high class.

3rd Symphony (1981)

1) Moderato

11.26

2) Allegro

13.23

3) Allegro pesante

8.15

4) Adagio

19.08

CD information

One hundred and eleven musicians celebrating a large-scale symphony. That sounds like Gustav Mahler, Richard Strauss, or Arnold Schoenberg. In fact, the composer of this symphony, Alfred Schnittke, had precisely these composers (and many others) in mind back in 1981. Whereas he initially mirrored certain styles from figures as Mahler, Mozart, Bach, Stravinsky, Prokofiev and Shostakovich, he was soon also borrowing concepts from “trivial music”, folklore, jazz, tango, as well as many other styles. He himself described his compositional technique as “polystylistic”, which was more than just a technique, but an aesthetic programme: a serious effort to break through the vicious circle of the self satisfied and self sufficient avant garde music.

Alfred Schnittke’s Symphony No. 3 testifies all this searching, this “in-betweenness”. The four movement work — an opening Moderato, followed by an Allegro, a long movement marked Allego pesante, with the briefer finale marked Adagio — was commissioned for the ceremonial opening of the new Gewandhaus in Leipzig. He used the prestigious commission from Leipzig as a moment to confront not only the multi layered historical past, but also the weakened current state of affairs while remaining highly respectful of the achievements of both the past and the present.

Released on SACD by PENTATONE, this symphony is recorded with Vladimir Jurowski conducting the Rundfunk Sinfonieorchester Berlin. Jurowski states, “He (Schnittke) was not alone in his capacity of ‘seismograph of the cultural nightmares of his/our present’”. The conductor’s insightful, unique reading and his collaboration with an orchestra who are on top form undeniably produced nothing less than a magnificent tribute to Schnittke’s great and intricate score.